In September 1996, Riverfront Stadium was renamed "Cinergy Field" in a sponsorship deal with Greater Cincinnati energy company Cinergy. In 2001, to make room for Great American Ball Park, the seating capacity at Cinergy Field was reduced to 39,000. There was a huge in-play wall in center field visible after the renovations, to serve as the batter's eye. The stadium was demolished by implosion on December 29, 2002.

One feature of Riverfront that distinguished it from other cookie-cutters was that the lower level seats for baseball, from home plate to the left field foul line, were wheeled for conversion to a football seating configuration.[4] The astroturf panels covering the tracks could be seen in left field during Reds games. (Shea Stadium in New York had featured a similar movable field-level seats design from its debut in 1964 until the Jets moved to Giants Stadium in New Jersey in 1984, after which the Mets retrofitted Shea for exclusive baseball use.[5] A variation of this design was also used at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.)[6]

The site Riverfront Stadium sat on originally included the 2nd Street tenement, birthplace and boyhood home of cowboy singer and actor Roy Rogers, who joked that he was born "somewhere between second base and center field."

The Reds moved to Riverfront Stadium midway through the 1970 season, after spending over 86 years at the intersection of Findlay Street and Western Avenue – the last 57½ of those years at Crosley Field. Riverfront quickly earned a place in Cincinnati's century-long baseball tradition as the home of one of the best teams in baseball history. The Reds had only won three pennants in their final 39 years at Crosley Field (1939, 1940, 1961) but made the World Series in Riverfront's first year (1970) and a total of four times in the stadium's first seven years, with the Reds winning back-to-back championships in 1975 and 1976. The World Series would return in 1990, with Cincinnati winning the first two of a four-game sweep of the Oakland Athletics at Riverfront.

The turf infield and dirt "slide pits" can be seen in this April 1995 photograph.

Despite Cincinnati's love of baseball, it was the prospect of a professional football team that finally moved the city to end 20 years of discussion and build a new stadium on the downtown riverfront. After playing for two seasons at Nippert Stadium on the University of Cincinnati campus, the Bengals built on the Reds' success in the stadium's first year when they recorded their first winning season and playoff appearance in 1970, just their third year of existence.

Perhaps the most memorable football game at Riverfront was the AFC Championship on January 10, 1982. The game became known as the Freezer Bowl and was won by the Bengals over the San Diego Chargers, 27–7. The air temperature during the game was −9 °F (−23 °C) and the wind chill was −37 °F (−38 °C), the coldest in NFL history. The win earned the Bengals their first of two trips to the Super Bowl (XVI) while playing at Riverfront.

For most of the Bengals' tenure at the stadium, the field contained only the basic markings required for play. Until the late 1990s, there wasn't a logo at midfield or any writing in the end zone, which had long become standard in NFL stadiums.

During the 1988 season as the Bengals were making a Super Bowl run, Riverfront Stadium was nicknamed the Jungle as the Bengals went a perfect 10-0 at home during the regular season and in the playoffs. With the new stadium nickname, the fans and team adopted the Guns N' Roses song "Welcome to the Jungle" as the unofficial theme song for the Bengals. When Paul Brown Stadium opened in 2000, the Jungle theme was incorporated into the stadium design.

When the Bengals moved to Paul Brown Stadium in 2000, the Reds were left as Cinergy Field's only tenant. Prior to the 2001 baseball season, the stadium was remodeled into a baseball-only configuration, and the artificial surface was replaced with grass.

Cinergy Field during a Cincinnati Reds game vs. the St. Louis Cardinals on August 23, 2001. Construction of Great American Ballpark is visible in the background.

To allow room for the construction of Great American Ball Park (which was being built largely over the grounds the stadium already sat on), a large section of the left and center field stands were removed and the distance to the fences was shortened by five feet. A 40-foot (12 m) wall was built in deep center field to prevent easy home runs. The new Great American Ball Park and old Riverfront Stadium were 26 inches apart at its closest point during this time. In the Reds' final two seasons in the stadium, ongoing construction on Great American was plainly visible just beyond the outfield walls while the team played their games.

The stadium was demolished by implosion on December 29, 2002. Any debris was removed and scrapped. Today, part of the site is now occupied by Great American Ball Park and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, along with several mixed-use developments and parking facilities. A small portion of the Riverfront Stadium site is now occupied by the Reds' Hall of Fame and Museum and Main Street, which was extended when the new park was built and when the old park was demolished.